Follow along as MMATraining.com’s Jeff Harrison documents his training program from his home base at MAS Thai in Cambridge Ontario to Renzo Gracie – Ottawa. From BJJ, wrestling, muay thai, core strength and cardio training, Jeff’s daily workouts are here to give our subscribers a taste of what it is like in the life of a fighter rising up the professional MMA ranks.

Week Four

Everything feels better after a good weekend of rest. I have been offered a multi fight contract with XMMA, a new promotion out of Montreal that recently picked up a deal for coverage on Bell Xpressview as well as The Fight Network. At this point in the game I am looking for three things; exposure, decent purse, and wins to build my record. This organization looks like it can provide the first two, the later is up to my coaches and I. November 8th is the date they plan to have me on their next card, so training will be increasing in intensity. They were nice enough to provide me with some complementary tickets for their upcoming show on Saturday in Montreal, so I am eager to go check out the level of 145 and 155lbs fighters. I would love to fight someone with more experience than me that I can use as a stepping stone to build my name and my career, as I am feeling hungry, and am just ready to fight. However, I realize that I haven’t even been a pro MMa fighter for a year yet! I have a long way to go, but with the right opponents I feel I could be fighting for the top spot of the Canadian MMA scene within another 18 months.

Monday

At noon I started the day off with some Gi Jiu Jitsu. The gi is a great way to build solid technique. Today we drilled position training. Escapes from mount, side mount, guard passing and working off the back were part of the workout today, followed by review and drilling of a high percentage sweep. Following this class we got into some no gi grappling and wrestling. Drilling on the Thai Pads and then some plyometric and conditioning work followed.

At night I joined the Jiu Jitsu randori, or live sparring class, and got to roll with some purple/brown belt level guys. I felt pretty good about my performance pertaining to my individual goals and am really starting to believe in the training system of Renzo Gracie Jiu Jitsu. After I taught an advanced Muay Thai class, and then sparred 7 rounds of Thai followed by a stretch and some ab work.

Tuesday

In BJJ today, class started with positional training once again. I got stuck with a 260lbs man who was all muscle, so it was pretty exhausting working my escapes. We drilled the guillotine and different applications. This move is very effective for me personally and I always like to train it as much as possible. After class I worked on some wrestling with a fantastic university wrestler with lots of competition experience. Wrestling is the major hole in my game so we’re trying to improve that aspect of my fighting. After wrestling we sparred 2 rounds takedowns, 2 rounds stand up, and 2 rounds MMA.

I took it easy, taught some classes until night time MMA sparring classes, where I did 5×5 minute rounds with 30 seconds break in between.

Wednesday

At noon, I laid off the Gi training to do some running and conditioning work instead. I ran ski hills until exhaustion and ran back to the academy to work on footwork, sprawls, shadow boxing for speed followed by ab work.

At night I jumped in a Gi class that again focused on basics. My escapes felt very quick and technical. We then drilled out some a sequence of techniques rooted in the kimura. After it was Randori class were I rolled 6×5 minute rounds. After I sparred 5x5minute rounds of Thai boxing. It’s great to move around with Mark Holst, who is getting ready to go represent in Calgary at an 8 man tournament to qualify for the reality TV series contender Asia.

Thursday

At noon I trained more positions, followed by some fine tuning of the triangle choke. Following that class I took part in some wrestling, and more importantly for me, takedown defense. It was an exhausting class.

At 5:30 it was time to practice the moves I’ve been learning at Randori. I hit a lot of subs and sweeps and rolled 6x 5 minute rounds. After I stretched a little I went for a 5km run, and then taught the fight team class.

Friday

Today I started at 1 with some wrestling, followed by MMA sparring. It was more of an open session, with more attention to techniques, like a questions and answers session. We still worked up a good sweat though.

At night it was No Gi rolling, otherwise known as Friday night fights here. Basically it’s the night were everyone steps it up a notch and pushes each other. I had a great night completing 5×5 minute rounds of intense no gi Jiu Jitsu.

Saturday

Today I did sprints at the track with pullups, pushups, and plyometrics in between. Feeling good!